Fusion splicers are apparatuses designed to connect two optical fibers, and there are a fusion splicing type using a pigtail and a mechanical splicing type. One example of such fusion splicers is shown in FIG. 1.
As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional optical fiber fusion splicer 1 includes a main body 10, a connecting part 20, a heating part 30, a monitor 40 and an operating part 50.
The main body 10 is for installing other parts thereon, and it is installed with a handle 11 on a predetermined outside thereof to give convenience of carriage of the fusion splicer 1.
The connecting part 20 is for connecting ends of two optical fibers from each other, and it is installed on the top surface of the body 10.
The heating part 30 is for fusing a sleeve pipe onto the connected optical fibers by giving heat, and it is installed on the top surface of the main body 10 to be disposed front of the connecting part 20. The heating part 30 is provided with a heating housing therein, the heating housing for covering the optical fibers with the sleeve pipe and for heating them, and recently, US Patent Application Publication No. 20060280417A1 discloses a splicer using two heating housings.
The monitor 40 is for monitoring the interior state of the connecting part 20, that is, the connection state of the optical fiber ends, and it is installed on the top surface of the main body 10 to be disposed behind of the connecting part 20. The monitor 40 is rotatable with respect to the main body 10 toward the direction of the arrow.
The operating part 50 is for operating the connecting part 20, the heating part 30 and the monitor 40, and it is installed on the top surface of the main body 10 to be disposed between the connecting part 20 and the monitor 40.
In addition, the main body 10 is provided with a plurality of ports such as a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port, a power port and a video port on the outside thereof, and also provided with a battery for supplying power required for operating the connecting part 20, the heating part 30 and the monitor 40 in the inside thereof.
The fusion splicer 1 having the above described construction has a problem in that the monitor 40 would be easily damaged during its movement and/or storage and a display screen 41 would be spoiled by foreign bodies since the monitor 40 is exposed outside of the main body 10.
Furthermore, the conventional fusion splicer requires lots of working time since one sleeve pipe is fused in one heater housing. Particularly, US Patent Application Publication No. 20060280417A1 uses two heating housings, thereby occupying a large space and increasing the manufacturing costs of the fusion splicer. In practice, while about 7 seconds are consumed to strip, clean or cut the optical fibers and then about 10 seconds are consumed to connect the optical fibers from each other, whereas about 45 to 60 seconds are consumed to fuse the sleeve pipe. Consequently, the whole working time is greatly increased because of insufficiency of the heating housings.